Write what you know?

 

What are your thoughts on writing outside your own experience? What are the potential pitfalls? What are the reasons to do it? Can you give a personal example of how you navigated this potentially problematic terrain?

 

One of the first rules of writing that I learned was right what you know. I couldn’t agree less. So, I ignore it all the time. Personally, I think that should be a rule strictly for non-fiction. I mean, considering that someone always dies, normally not well, in my novels, my family and friends, probably co-workers too, or maybe mostly co-workers, are probably very grateful that I decided to pitch that rule in the trash.

To label it a rule is probably a bit of an exaggeration, but still, in my mind, fiction writers should, as the great Janet Evanovich once told me, “Write whatever you want!” And now, that is exactly what I do. But that was not always the case. Despite my dark heart crying out for murder and mayhem, my first books were squarely in the women’s fiction genre. They were all about the everyday struggles of trying to navigate the drama of family, friendship, and love, because that is what I knew.

I still love those books, more importantly, I love how well received they were by readers, who found that they could relate to the struggles and strength of those characters, because those were their struggles too. And that is the beauty of writing what you know, the authenticity shines through in a way that is never quite the same when you’re writing outside your own experience.

 I can’t tell you how many times readers have approached me to tell me which girl they thought they were from my first books. Still, there is nothing more exciting than letting your mind wander into new streams of thought, building new worlds, and dare I say, learning all kinds of things you didn’t know. And that’s the tradeoff folks, the learning of brand-new ideas, new worlds being created at the tips of your fingertips. And unlike with doctors, when writers play God, no one dies, in real life, that is.

 But make no mistake the pitfalls are there lying in wait. The biggest one of them being the reader who knows everything about that thing that you wrote and thought you could bluff your way through, and they are ready and waiting to tell you everything single thing you got wrong, be it by email, your socials, or, gasp, a handwritten letter delivered the old-fashioned way. They will point out every mistake, no matter how small in 4k, baby. And you’ll have no choice but to live with in for eternity. Because as we know, the internet is forever. The very thought of it gives me the shivers.

As scary as that may sound, or did, to me in the beginning. The reward far outweighs the risk. Because for every super attentive reader that will find your mistakes and beat you over the head with them for all eternity. There is that reader who will walk up to you and tell you, “I hate you for making me cry so hard over someone who isn’t even real.” Or my all-time favorite, “You’re going to get me fired because I stayed up all night reading your book and was late for work.” Thank you, dear reader. My job is done here.

So, write what you know, sure. But never be afraid to branch out and build that brand-spanking new world. But first, research, research, and research again, because Mr. Know-It-All is waiting and he is ravenous.